


One More Chance To Be Caught Unaware

by IAmSorry__sendmeaprompt



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adorable, Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bonding over books, Castiel/Dean Winchester Mutual Pining, Cat Lilith, Cat Owner Castiel (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Reads, Established Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Marriage, Mechanic Dean Winchester, Meet-Cute, No Angst, Romantic Fluff, Sam Winchester is So Done, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmSorry__sendmeaprompt/pseuds/IAmSorry__sendmeaprompt
Summary: Castiel is comfortable in his life as a bookstore owner with his little circle of friends and his prissy cat... until a handsome stranger walks into his shop and it's love at first sight.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Comments: 6
Kudos: 77





	One More Chance To Be Caught Unaware

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HadTooMuchToThink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HadTooMuchToThink/gifts).



> Title is from the song Love At First Sight by Styx :)

“Come on, Lilith,” Castiel sighed, exasperated.

Lilith, as was her wont, meowed at him.

“I wouldn’t have adopted you if I’d known you were going to be this picky,” he told her severely, and she swished her long, silky tail.

Lilith was a Maine Coon who had shown up on the doorstep of Cas’ small bookstore,  _ Prints And The Paper _ , a year ago. He’d walked down the outdoor stairs leading up to his loft apartment over the store, circled around to the front of the building to unlock the door and start his day, when he’d heard a tiny squeaking noise.

He’d looked down, the swirling January snow catching on his eyelashes, and seen a sopping wet paper bag planted on his doorstep. Castiel nudged it gently with his foot.

It had squeaked and scooted away from him.

At that point, Castiel had decided that the bag probably wasn’t sentient and he should probably open it up, and when he had he’d found a tiny, shivering mass of fur. A kitten.

He’d closed the bookstore again immediately and rushed the freezing, precious bundle to the vet immediately, where a cheerful blonde vet tech named Jess had taken over with practiced ease. She’d quite probably saved the kitten’s life, and once Castiel had paid the bill, cradling his new charge protectively inside his trench coat, he’d offered her a lifetime discount at the bookstore.

The spunky little kitten had quickly proven herself to have a strong personality, and Castiel had been grateful for his extremely religious upbringing when he’d decided that Lilith was the perfect name for her.

Lilith had been Adam’s first wife, who decided she didn’t particularly want or need him, who’d immediately moved away and had a grand old time all by herself. The name fit like a glove.

She had quickly grown very very large. Jess had estimated that she was just shy of a year when Castiel had found her, and now, at about two years old, she was three feet long and about twenty-five pounds.

He had no idea how she’d managed to get that big, because she was the pickiest eater he’d ever seen, and she was currently turning up her nose at her erstwhile favorite, liver paté.

Castiel went through so much expensive cat food for her, he was tiredly glad that his father had left his trust fund unaltered when he’d disowned him for his romantic inclinations.

“Come  _ on _ ,” he pleaded, ineffectively nudging her with one finger. “It’s all we have right now and you’ll yell at me all day until I can make it to the store if you don’t eat it.”

The bell over the door jingled, Jess coming in with her boyfriend, Sam, in tow. Castiel waved in acknowledgement.

“Hello, gorgeous lady!” Jess gushed over Lilith, massaging her ears and stroking her soft fur. Lilith purred and arched into the expert touch. Traitor. “Hey Cas,” Jess said. “How’s it going?”

“Very well,” he answered. “I have that book you ordered a few weeks ago.” He pulled it out from under the counter, removing the sticky note that had her name written on it in his elegant script.

“You missed our Saturday lunch,” she told him reproachfully. “Sam and Charlie and I were worried.”

“I know,” he told her. “Charlie called and yelled at me, and threatened to drag me LARPing.” He settled in behind the counter, fully ready for a session of catching-up, and winced as Lilith settled in and started kneading his arm with her claws.

He and Jess chatted for a while while Sam browsed, then he came up to the counter with a few books and joined the easy conversation, absently stroking Lilith as he did. Sam and Jess stayed for a couple of hours, because somehow both of them had managed to wrangle the same schedule of time off work, Jess from the vet’s office and Sam from the law firm where he was quickly rising through the ranks, and both of them were determined, come hell or high water, to drag Castiel out of his shell and be friends with him.

“That reminds me,” Jess said as she and Sam walked out the door. “Sam’s brother is coming up from Kansas, and you two need to meet.”

***

A couple of weeks passed, in which Castiel carried out his usual routine of working at the shop, doting on an indifferent Lilith, and meeting up with his friends whenever they decided he should. He helped Charlie fix her chainmail outfit, had coffee with Jess, and discussed impending legal cases with Sam.

In short, he carried out the very life he’d been living for quite some time, and was enjoying it immensely.

Then  _ he  _ walked into the shop, and Castiel’s orderly, comfortable life fell ass-over-tits, inside out, down the slippery slope to upheaval.

_ He _ was beautiful. He was tall, taller than Castiel, with dark blond hair and piercing green eyes, and a smattering of freckles across his face. He’d browsed through the shelves for a few minutes, and Castiel had been unable to keep his eyes off the man.

Then he’d zeroed in on the book Castiel had been reading, and it had been all over. “Is that Jailbird? Vonnegut?” he’d asked, voice flowing over Castiel like honey, and Castiel had barely stammered out an agreement. 

The man settled himself into the bookstore armchair closest to the register where Castiel was sitting, and started talking. “I love that one, man, it’s sooo good. It really brings out the stark side of McCarthyism while still paying attention to the labor movement, but not, like, in a preachy way.”

I think I’m in love, Castiel thought, hearts practically dancing in his eyes, and proceeded to have a very fulfilling discussion with the man that covered all the best points of all Castiel’s favorite books.

***

“I didn’t even get his  _ name _ ,” he lamented to Charlie the next Friday night, when she’d dragged him over to her house for movies and margaritas. He’d probably had too many margaritas.

“Oh, Castiel,” she said, slightly drunk herself, and patted his shoulder with great precision and focus. “Let’s watch some rom-coms.”

***

“He was  _ smart _ ,” he complained to Jess when she stopped by to coo over Lilith and chat with him after work. He’d been in a funk ever since the man had visited his shop, and felt that it was fully his due to let all of his friends know it.

“Maybe he’ll come in again!” she chirped, scritching under Lilith’s chin and coaxing a rumbling purr out of the large cat.

Jess was obviously magic, or was able to predict the future with alarming accuracy, because behind her, the bell over the door chimed and he walked in again. 

Walking next to Sam.

Chatting to Sam.

“Oh,” Jess said brightly. “This is Sam and his brother Dean.”

Castiel nodded numbly and excused himself.

***

“He was avoiding me,” Dean told Sam and Jess when they went out for dinner after visiting the bookstore. “He was definitely avoiding me. Did I do something wrong? Last time I came in we had a nice chat.”

Jess froze, looking at him intently. Sam, not noticing anything was amiss, poked at his salad. “Dean,” Jess asked him carefully, “You’ve been in there before?”

“Uh, yeah? We talked about Vonnegut and stuff?” He took a bite of his burger.

Jess squealed. An honest-to-goodness squeal. Sam jerked his attention from his food to his girlfriend, obviously worried that something was wrong. “Oh my god, Dean, you’re his mystery man!”

Dean was still processing that he was Castiel’s anything, let alone something as cool as a mystery man, when Sam piped up. “Hold on, Jess, Dean’s the guy you were telling me about? The one who-”

Jess cut him off, flapping her hands wildly. “No, no, don’t spoil it! Dean, how did you feel about Castiel?”

“He was… nice. And sweet. And smart. I liked talking to him.” 

“Okay,” she told him, with the air of a general sending her troops into the field. “Here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna go in there and talk to him about books, and do  _ not  _ let him avoid you.”

Well, all right. That sounded doable. Castiel had been kind, and the way his face lit up when he talked about the finer points of the subtext in some of the books had been… kinda adorable, honestly. And the man himself was quite handsome, with his blue eyes and tousled hair, and he was obviously a good person in general because he put up with that bratty cat, and Sam and Jess obviously liked him which was a point in his favor, and-

“Dean, Dean?” Sam was waving his hand in front of Dean’s face. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”

Dean spluttered. “I wasn’t!”

“Yeah, you were. I know that look you get.”

“Fine,” Dean muttered, crossing his arms and looking away. “Okay.”

***

The next day, he pushed open the door to the bookstore with his tattered copy of  _ Aesop’s Fables _ under his arm. The book had been his mother’s, and he fondly remembered her reading it to him every night before bed. It remained one of his favorite books, and he wanted to know if Castiel had anything to say about it.

Castiel was helping a little old lady who seemed to be dithering between two different books on knitting patterns, but as soon as he saw Dean, he made a quick excuse and vanished into the back room.

The lady selected one of the books and moved on with her browsing.

Castiel didn’t appear again.

Tentatively, remembering Jess’ instructions, Dean walked over to the door to the back room and pushed it open. “Castiel? Cas?” he called, before catching sight of the man bent over a box of books. “Heya, Cas, remember me? Dean Winchester. I was wondering if you’d like to have another chat.”

Castiel squeaked and stood up, flushing bright red and muttering something Dean didn’t quite catch before fleeing past Dean and back into the shop proper, where he devoted all his energy to helping the lady check out.

Dean, ever tenacious, pursued him.

***

Castiel had thought that Dean wouldn’t return to his store, and had thoroughly made his peace with that, but when he’d seen the man stepping through the door he’d immediately forgotten how to speak. Dean, it seemed, had that effect on him.

Then he had a horrifying thought. What if Jess had told Dean all about Castiel’s little crush on him, and the man had come to laugh at him? He did his best to avoid Dean, but the man was persistent, and when he’d carefully approached the register holding Lilith in front of his face and talking in a squeaky voice in an amusing attempt to ‘fool’ Castiel into letting him get close, Castiel gave in.

In a flash, Dean was back in the armchair, a purring Lilith sat on his lap stretching up his torso to lazily chew on his shirt collar, and a book open on his lap, asking Castiel if he recognized the story of the raven and the swan, and what he thought of it if he did.

“Well,” Castiel mused, “I really don’t think it was as clear-cut as the lesson is meant to be,” and that sparked another lively discussion that lasted a good hour.

***

Dean visited the bookshop every day he was in town, and then informed Sam he was thinking of moving up from Kansas for good.

“Are you sure, Dean?” Sam asked, like the intelligent and well organized little brother that he was.

“Yeah, man. I’m a mechanic, I can find work anywhere. It’s not a big deal.” Dean lay back on Sam’s couch and sipped at his beer, mentally shifting his focus from ‘watching the game’ to ‘discussing the future with Sammy’. “This way I’ll be closer to you and Jess if y’all need me.”

“Right,” Sam chuckled, prying the cap off of his own beer. “It has absolutely nothing to do with the shy, smart bookstore owner you’re head over heels in love with.”

Then, seeing Dean gearing up to loudly defend himself from the impending chick flick moment, he talked a little louder. “Have you even asked him out yet?”

“Uh.” Dean suddenly became very fascinated with picking at the label on his beer bottle.

“Dean, you always do this. You get too invested too quickly.”

“Do  _ not _ !”

“Do  _ too _ ,” Sam reiterated, sticking his tongue out, and Jess calmly intervened, keeping the situation from deteriorating further.

“Sam, don’t provoke your brother, please. Dean, here’s two tickets to a traveling exhibition at the local museum of art that Castiel has been excited to see. Go to the bookstore tomorrow and ask him.”

***

**Two Years Later**

“I can’t do this. Charlie, what the hell am I doing?” Castiel fretted, staring at himself in the full length mirror.

Charlie fluttered around him, poking and prodding and straightening his tie. “You can so totally do this. Come on, man.” She scooped some hair gel onto her fingers and set about taming his riotous bird’s nest.

“Why am I here?”

“You are here because you always wanted to get married at the Ernest Hemingway Home, both because of the literary aspect and because of all the cats. And Lilith is enjoying herself greatly making friends, so you have nothing to worry about.” She shoved him down onto a stool in front of the mirror and began employing more invasive hair styling procedures.

“I’m getting  _ married _ , Charlie. Me. Married.”

“To Dean. Who loves you. Who proposed to you by quoting Mr. Darcy and who you want to spend the rest of your life being disgustingly literary and adorable with, so stop being nervous and get your ass out there. It’s time.”

Any and all doubts Castiel may have had regarding his impending nuptials fled the second he saw Dean waiting for him at the altar underneath the giant oak tree in the Hemingway Home’s backyard. Dean was in a dove grey suit, just like Castiel's, and he was looking at Castiel coming down the aisle like he'd seen an angel.

Dimly, he registered that Sam and Jess and Charlie and other friends were there, and the six-toed cats the Home was famous for were sprawling all over the place, and Lilith was sat on her enclosed cat bed enjoying herself, and Songbird by Fleetwood Mac was playing, and then he was standing in front of Dean, looking into those beautiful green eyes, and he couldn’t wait to be married to the man he loved.


End file.
